Goddess of Yesterday
Caroline B. Cooney
Reviewed by Jo Manning
When I read this young adult book, set in the Greek Islands, Sparta, and Troy before and during the fabled Trojan War, I was reminded of Margaret Atwood’s fabulous tour de force, The Penelopiad, a novella published in the Canongate Myths series in 2005.
Both these novels feature the enigmatic beauty Helen of Troy, fabled daughter of the God Zeus and Queen Leda. In Cooney’s book, she’s beautiful, all right, but also a monstrous figure, a narcissistic sadist/control freak who both terrorizes and enchants all with whom she interacts. In The Penelopiad, a mostly comic tale bloodied by the horrific deaths by hanging of Queen Penelope’s 12 serving maids, Helen is the beautiful cousin who was the ongoing bane of Penelope’s life. Indeed, Penelope calls Helen “poison on legs.” And much worse.
But, then, Queen Helen of Sparta has had both her detractors and her admirers over the ages. In his play The Trojan Women, Euripides wrote that Helen was a creature who “has drawn her breath from many fathers: Madness, Hate, red Death and every rotting poison of the sky”. We in the 21st century probably know her better as “the face that launch’d a thousand ships/And burnt the topless towers of Ilium”, taking our cues from Christopher Marlowe’s 16th century morality tale, Dr. Faustus, and perhaps cutting her more slack than her selfish actions deserved. Atwood has used her sources well, as has Caroline B. Cooney, in constructing the fictional persona of Helen of Troy.
We first meet the young Anaxandra when she is taken as a hostage-tribute by Nicander, King of Siphnos; she will be a companion to his 9-year-old crippled daughter Callisto. The 6-year-old, in all innocence, lets slip where her pirate father keeps his treasure; Nicander takes that, too, guaranteeing that her father will never want her returned. In truth, though, all of these Aegean kings were pirates, some more successful than others, looting each other’s kingdoms, taking people hostage, and enslaving them. Gold was the name of the game: gold to build elaborate temples to satisfy the insatiable Gods.
But, as Atwood and Cooney – and all the Greek playwrights – warn us, the Gods are fickle, the Gods play tricks, the Gods play with humans for their sport. The long-lasting Trojan War, with Gods pitted against Gods, was a 10-year-long sporting event for the Greek Gods.
Anaxandra, who prays to her goddess of yesterday, the unnamed deity from her unnamed island, that insignificant piece of rock in the Mediterranean Sea, is nothing if not a survivor. She is not unlike Melkorka of Donna Jo Napoli’s HUSH in her talent for survival, but she approaches survival much more pro-actively. Anaxandra is right-up-in-your-face.
When King Nicander’s palace is burned and all are killed except the now-12-year-old hostage-tribute, Anaxandra frightens off the pirates with a bold move and stays to protect the grave of the king, in the best Greek tradition of honoring the dead. (Think Antigone.) She’s found by King Menelaus of Sparta when his ships are blown off-course. He’s fascinated by the fierce girl he thinks is guarding her father. Like him, too, Anaxandra is red-haired, and he warms to her looks. Quick-witted Anaxandra takes the opportunity to masquerade as the dead Callisto, thus upgrading herself to princess status and ownership of Siphnos and its treasure, which Menelaus will take away in her name.
Trickery abounds in GODDESS OF YESTERDAY, as it abounded in the time of the Greeks. The most accomplished trickster is the one with the best chance of survival in brutal times. (Think Penelope’s wandering husband, Odysseus.) Pretending to be a princess is much better than admitting one’s a hostage. True, princesses – and queens -- can become slaves, too, but quick-witted fast-talkers who’ve exhibited great bravery can become favorites of kings. Menelaus finds Anaxandra-Callisto enchanting and brings her and her treasure back to Sparta. But will the Gods be appeased by the child’s trickery? Remember how fickle they can be, how exacting and cruel in their revenge.
Then the fun begins. Queen Helen is not enchanted by the now-Callisto. Far from it. She has doubts the girl is telling the truth and is not happy that Menelaus appears so fond of her. Queen Helen is jealous and that does not bode well. Anaxandra-Callisto is warned to keep a low profile, even as she is taken to heart by Princess Hermione, Helen’s daughter. In the midst of all this comes Prince Paris of Troy, ostensibly to be cleansed by the God favoring Sparta for a blood-crime, but with nefarious plans that will be set in motion when King Menelaus is tricked into leaving Sparta. The gates wide-open, Paris takes both the too-willing Helen and all of Menelaus’ gold. Anaxandra, now in the guise of Hermione to save that princess from Paris, will accompany Pleisthenes, the youngest son of Menelaus and Helen, a 2-year-old baby. The murderous Paris plans to throw them and the baby’s nurse overboard before they reach Troy, but fate, in the form of a sympathetic captain, saves her and Pleis, though not the nurse.
And now the stage is set for the siege of Troy, with the insider view of a pre-teenaged girl trying to keep herself and a toddler safe from harm in the midst of chaos, slaughter, and the plots of evil princes.
Cooney does full justice to the ancient Greek setting and to the well-known personages of The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid. The well-drawn Anaxandra-Callisto is a fictional character with the blood and guts to compete with any of them. This is another empowering tale for young adult girls that’s a successful amalgam of history, fiction, and myth. While highly recommended for young adults, it’s also a powerful and gripping read for adults, another good find from the world of YA literature.
Caroline B. Cooney’s latest book is ENTER THREE WITCHES, based on elements from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Cooney has won numerous honors for her writing from the American Library Association and from the ALA’s review journal Booklist.
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About the Reviewer:
Jo Manning was a children’s librarian before she went back to graduate school and trained to become a research/reference librarian in academia (Washington State University, U. of Miami, others) and the corporate world (Reader’s Digest, ABC News, Citibank). She's always regarded children’s literature as the purest form of fiction. "These are often very moral books," she says, "and the lessons in them, as well as the characters, stick with you all of your life. (Think LITTLE WOMEN, PETER PAN, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, et al.)"
Jo has been writing fiction for publication since the 1990s. Starting with short stories (about a dozen were published in magazines and anthologies); going on to romance fiction (three novels - THE RELUCTANT GUARDIAN, SEDUCING MR. HEYWOOD, THE SICILIAN AMULET - two of them historical fiction); and her last book, MY LADY SCANDALOUS, a biography of the 18th century royal courtesan Grace Dalrymple Elliott. Her newest work-in-process, YOU CAN BE HAPPY WITHOUT A MAN, is a Young Adult novel set in Victorian England about a young girl’s attempts to find a husband for her mother.
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